Reflection Is A Key Element

While my vision for this blog was to help CTSO Advisers provide the best possible opportunities for their students, the truth of it is that suggestions of that type will serve adults in many different organizations. Many of the topics we touch on here can be applicable to Scouting, Church camp, even athletics, and can improve the experience of both the child and the adult. Reflecting to move forward is an important piece of that puzzle.

I would argue that virtually nothing is more important to the sustained health of your organization than reflection. 

Speaking from my professional perspective as an educator, taking the time and effort to reflect has continued to refine my craft, and has paid tremendous dividends for my students in terms of understanding and application of topics from the most basic to the most advanced. Spending the time to reflect on each lecture has helped me improve the process moving forward, and solidifies for me what teaching methods work in different situations.

Where Did ‘Reflecting To Move Forward’ Come From?

While reflection is widely discussed as being of paramount importance, the sad truth is that, with all of our responsibilities and requirements, it is also the element of lesson design that is often skipped completely. This is a huge problem, and needs to be addressed. Teachers need not only training in how to use reflection to improve craft, but they also need time built into their daily and extended schedule to complete substantial reflection activities.

And now we are in summer. While I do not advocate “giving it away” or working off-contract, I have found it an easy and valuable endeavor to reflect on how things went during the previous school year, and brainstorm ways to improve lectures, projects, interactions and personal relationships.

Let’s apply this incredible skill to our CTSO year. 

Reflecting On Our CTSO Year

We recently returned from the National Leadership Conference for FBLA in Chicago. It was a great week with 20 of the best and brightest students from my school. In terms of statistics, this was a fantastic year, because of the 20, only one is a senior, which means that every other student was able to learn skills they can use next year to earn a spot at Nationals in FBLA, DECA, HOSA, or whatever organization they pursue. 

We were, however, shockingly skunked at NLC. Despite tremendous preparation and study time, none of my students advanced to finals or appeared in the top 10 in their event. It was a shocking and humbling experience for us as Advisers. Luckily, it was the first time any of the 20 had attended Nationals, and 19 will be back next year, it wasn’t the end of the world. But it was humbling. 

How do you then convince students to reflect POSITIVELY on the experience? How does reflecting to move forward apply to these humbling experiences?

Ways To Do Reflective Exercises

We do a number of things to help students start reflecting to move on with the process, and try to find ways for every student to be able to explain not only the past year, but most importantly, how we can improve in the future.

COMPETITIONS

There is concrete reflection, and then there is experiential reflection. We use both, with the concrete reflection coming first. The minute a student comes out of a competition, we have them sit with us and write down absolutely everything they remember. We have them write in short phrases instead of sentences, and identify any vocabulary they saw in the scenarios, different topics they had on the objective tests, the questions the judges asked, the learning objectives. Absolutely anything they remember from the experience. Not only do we use this in preparation next year, but it helps solidify for the student the areas they excelled in as well as those they needed more work in. These reflections are then put into a book by competitive event title, so that next year’s competitors can benefit from the experience of this year’s students.

EXPERIENCES AT NATIONALS

We were in Chicago for the conference. Not primarily as tourists. The first two days, we spend all day at the convention center, and it isn’t until the second half of the week that we try to “tour” and do things in the area for fun. We wait until the end of the week to have students reflect on our week-long adventure. This year, for example, we fundraised and had sponsors enough to cover a Cubs game, a day at the Shedd Aquarium and a team dinner at a famous pizza place. All of that, however, took second place to the hard work of competing and experiencing everything at the convention.

PRE-COMPETITION SUPPORT

While we do some level of preparation throughout the year, we do extensive prep in the weeks leading up to Nationals, even though school is already out. It is important that students reflect on how much preparation they did individually, as well as with the group. This year, students who did not attend our Boot Camp days were regretful that they skipped those opportunities, and all of our students were able to explain what worked and didn’t work for them after competing at Nationals. We will use all of this feedback to construct our Boot Camp plans for next year.

NEXT YEAR

We have talked extensively on our blog about building a legacy. The only way to create a legacy is to create something sustainable in your absence. In order to do that, it is important that you have “buy-in” from your students, particularly those that are underclassmen. While we only brought one freshman to Chicago this year, he was extremely motivated and has become an “FBLA groupie” of the finest kind. His excitement, passion and now experience at Nationals will absolutely fuel our membership drive for next year. Your kids are your greatest spokespeople—if they feel they are an integral part of the organization.

Questions To Ask To Promote Reflection

We reflect after the State Conference as well, and ask similar questions. By keeping the questions relatively similar, the students will start thinking in those terms when reflecting to move forward. My freshman boy, for example, will have better constructed and deeper answers to the questions next year as a result of having answered similar questions this year.

Questions can include:

1. What was the best part of the conference experience?
2. What was the most fun part of the week?
3. What was our favorite non-conference activity we did?
4. How well did you feel WE prepared you for competition?
5. How well did you PERSONALLY prepare yourself for competition?
6. How did you feel during your competitive event?
7. How was your interaction with the judges?
8. What SURPRISED you about the competitive event process?
9. How could you prepare better next year?
10. What do you wish you knew a year ago about competition?
11. Tell Buono something she should know…

This Is A Whole Group Journey

Reflection is a unique journey, and the better you plan for your reflective practice, the more valuable the outcomes will be. I do not advocate just reflecting on conference and competition experiences. When you are running a full, robust organization like FBLA or DECA, there are many times during the year that you need to take a step back, a deep breath, and really analyze what you are doing.

That is why one of the most important things we do are whole group meetings at conferences. The last night of a conference, during our team meeting, we have an open discussion about the current trajectory of the organization, and what the members want to see. I run this meeting, instead of the leadership team, so there are no hurt feelings, and students feel more comfortable sharing changes they want to see.

While I maintain a loose agenda that I want to cover, this meeting is quite informal, with everyone—including me—sitting on the floor in a loose circle. My agenda includes how to build fundraising plans everybody will like doing (they hated selling meat sticks this year, so I had them brainstorm ways to make as much money selling something else). It includes improving the structure of our meetings, how much time they think should be devoted to community service events, and how we can reach across the aisle to other student organizations for social events. 

In advance…

I encourage the leadership team to sit back and not dominate the meeting. The secretary (that freshman boy this year!) takes notes on everyone’s suggestion—but is directed publicly to not put names in the notes when we discuss negatives or potential changes. These measures are designed to encourage a free and open exchange of ideas, and have led to excellent, positive changes over the years.

The important point for your members is that their voice matters. You don’t need a formal leadership title to impact the organization. That type of power and respect helps you build a strong foundation for a group that will survive long after my retirement.

Next Steps For The Leadership Team

Right now, following NLC, each member of the leadership team has the notes from our whole team meeting in Chicago, with instructions to reflect on the suggestions made. Each member is tasked with coming to our first meeting ready to discuss not only where we are strong, but where we need to be stronger. Most importantly, they need to come with action steps for us to make these improvements.

Throughout the year, our team continues to reflect on a regular basis: Our leadership team meets every Monday following our general meeting. The officer meetings tend to go even longer than the general meetings, because we cover a number of topics. At every meeting, we reflect on the following:

• What went well and went didn’t go well during the meeting. How can we correct those mistakes?
• How much member participation was there? Were the members actively engaged or quite passive?
• Did we spend time welcoming and engaging new members? Were they greeted at the door? Who will follow up with them?

Then we look ahead…

• What is the focus of the next meeting?
• Who will act as door greeter? What is their goal as the greeter?
• Who is creating ice breakers, and what is the purpose?
• How can we increase member participation?
• How can we build on the successful parts of this week’s meeting?

Whether you do it formally or informally, you need to become as serious about reflecting on your CTSO journey as you are reflecting on your teaching to move forward.

Since we recognize it’s value in improving instruction, it is incumbent upon us to use that knowledge to improve the performance—and the longevity—of our CTSO. 

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR

Wow, thank you for reading about reflecting to move forward!

Hey, since you’re here! You may as well check out how to start a CTSO, here, and the many lessons from the 4th of July, here! Check out our other topics here! Either way, I appreciate you!

Please leave a COMMENT about any tips you may have!! Or comment what your favorite lesson of mine was! How’s your student organization operating? How do you start reflecting to move forward? Let me know.

Feel free to contact me or leave a COMMENT with anything you would like to hear more about! Or reach out with any unrelated questions, comments, concerns, or random outbursts of excitement by clicking here.